June 28, 2012

International expert panel on multilingual children's speech

Today I chaired an international expert panel on multilingual children's speech in Cork, Ireland. This was the first meeting of the panel, and subsequent meetings with a larger group of participants will be held virtually. The aims of the panel are to:
  • Define international best practice guidelines for working with multilingual children with speech sound disorders.
  • Identify practical pathways for improvement of international practices for working with multilingual children with speech sound disorders.
  • Share resources, current research, and exemplary practices regarding multilingual children’s speech.
  • Plan collaborative projects to advance knowledge about multilingual children’s speech.
 We had a very rich discussion throughout the day, that was inspired by the following quote: How do we “close the gap between the linguistic homogeneity of the profession and the linguistic diversity of its clientele” ?(Caesar & Kohler, 2007, p. 198) 
By the end of the day we had outlined issues to enable us to prepare the draft of a position paper on multilingual children's speech. 

The international expert panel hard at work

The panel was still smiling at the end of our stimulating day together